The Environment: Harmony and I
My name is Desired Silver, I am a family member of the prestigious Silver household in the isolated town of Sandford in eastern Equestria. My family has quite a humble beginning, starting out as a lower-class mining family, coming to Sandford at the height of the town’s Silver Rush making their fortune out of selling the ore that they dug to the local and expanding businesses that were formed over time.
It is with this success that my Grandfather adopted the name ‘Silver’, forming the Silver Household upon the edges of the Town, setting us apart from the lower classes that were ‘unfit’ to watch our fortune expand over time. With my Grandfather’s untimely passing, my Father – Majestic Silver – became the ‘Master of the House’ and subsequently inherited the family fortune. Using these funds, he formed the foundation of the ‘Environment’ long before I was born unto the him.
During his adolescence, my Father was heavily influenced by a Prench Philosopher who went by the written alias of ‘Parx’, quickly falling in love with the Philosopher’s vision of a ‘Stallion Utopia’. This ‘Utopia’ was envisioned be the foundations for a society whereby all mares in Equestria would openly submit themselves to their Stallion Masters that would rule them.
My Father was unable to see this ‘Utopia’ become a reality, wholly rejected by the more liberal Capital of Canterlot, but never gave up with his pursuit to build what he termed ‘the perfect Environment’. With his newly inherited fortune, he successfully set up the fraternal group of the ‘Equestrian Environment for Submissive Mares’, using the family business’ influence to fund and promote the young organisation.
Gaining the signatures of three other households; he formed the original ‘Equestrian Environment for Submissive Mares’, or the EESM – for short, at the youthful age of twenty-nine. The Original Committee held the signatures of the Households; Silver; Cotton; Marble; and Clay in which they placed my Father as the chairman and honorary leader of the organisation. The newly formed ‘EESM’ was heavily personalised around the tastes of my father who had interpreted the words of ‘Parx’ to create what Majestic Silver coined ‘The Environment’.
To promote and encourage more households to join his ‘society’ he encouraged households to ‘personalise’ the ‘environment’ to suit the tastes and needs of the household’s ‘master of the house’. However, while households could alter and change certain aspects of their ‘environment’ it is essential that all households devoutly follow rules of the EESM.
To maintain their place within the EESM each it is compulsory for each Household to follow and comply with the rules set out by the committee. The ‘Equestrian Environment for Submissive Mares’ is an incredibly strict society and any Household that are found to have broken the rules face harsh consequences.
• Mares are the property of their Masters and are tasked with their unconditional submission.
• In the presence of a Master, a Mare may not speak unless they are spoken to.
• It is forbidden for Colts and Fillies to hold the titles of Master or Mare before the age of 18.
• A Master may only continue his bloodline through the appointment of a Breeder.
• A Master is permitted to take on an unlimited number of Mares.
• A Master may only take one Mare as their Breeder
• Mares are to carry out their Master’s tasks unconditionally.
• Mares are not permitted to hold places upon the EESM committee.
• A Master and Mare must consummate their contract within forty-eight hours.
• A failure to comply with EESM rules may result in severe consequences.
The fundamentals of the EESM were simple, it would become a society where dominant Stallions ‘ruled’ over submissive Mares, both of which would equally partake in various sexual activities of the Stallions choosing. What these rules enabled the EESM to do was create an image for the organisation that would present itself as a ‘law-abiding’ fraternity. Under the guise of “remaining within the law” it helped to cement the continued support of current and prospective EESM Households. Households who may have been wary to enter an organisation that could effectively destroy the participating Households if ever unlawful deeds were uncovered.
This consolidation aided in winning over many of the younger Households and even now, after twenty-nine years since my Father’s ‘Environment’ was originally conceptualised, the EESM is still popular amongst the rich and wealthy. At my current age of seventeen, soon to be eighteen, twelve households continue to partake within this fraternity, with a prospective thirteenth looking set to join any day now.
Sandford has always been an isolated town and only recently talk of building a railway line to connect us to the outside world had been mentioned. The ponies who lived here liked the solitude, I suppose it was their form of power trip, something that convinced them that they were in control of the town’s laws and not the over-burdening capital of Canterlot.
That’s not to say that Sandford Ponies weren’t unfriendly to outsiders, schemes were put in place to attract anyone and everyone to come and reside within the prospering town. Those who took up the offer were mainly Earth ponies, looking for a fresh start, the pull of the areas prospective wealth providing sufficient arguments for families willing to take the risk.
The Silver household is no longer the wealthiest household anymore, nor is it the biggest, the company’s original success was off the back of the Silver rush when the Town first formed long ago. It has recently been overshadowed by the newer households as the value of silver dropped continuously over the years as more and more has become available upon the open market, dwarfing our monopoly upon the town’s business sector.
The Silver household may not be the financial power it once was, but it remained undisputed as the most influential, invoking the envy of members of each household. I must be thankful to my father, he has allowed me the opportunities that most of the towns peasants wouldn’t believe even if I could show them. My education makes me ready to take my family’s hardships and has built up experience upon how to solve them.
With the landslide majority of Sandford’s population being Earth ponies, it is not surprising that all twelve of the current EESM members retain a ‘pure’ Earth bloodline. However, with the recent arrival of the ‘Alto’ Household, a Unicorn dominated family who originate from Manehatten. As far as I am aware, this deal hinges upon the ‘handover’ of the Unicorn Household’s eighteen-year-old daughter, my mare.
And so, upon the night before my eighteenth, I went to bed safe in the knowledge that tomorrow I would become a Stallion and be gifted with my first ever mare. It was hard to sleep at first, my thoughts racing through my head as I tried to picture what she would look like, what she would be like and how I would step into the role of taking responsibility for my fellow equine.